Our group had a strong showing at the 2023 Academic Surgical Congress in Houston TX! In addition to presenting our research and learning from other leaders in academic surgery, we love this meeting for getting to have a reunion with our former graduates! Fellows #1-6 were able to reunite and catch up at the UAB social at the Buffalo Bayou Brewing company (with photobombers Drs. Chen and Lindeman aka the fellows endocrine surgery “mom” and “dad”).
The Endocrine Surgery Research group practiced “work life integration” and spent some time enjoying activities around Birmingham! Drs. Andrea Gillis, Jessica McMullin, and Polina Zmijewski took the prize at Harry Potter Trivia at local bookstore Little Professor and our group had a great night out together going to the Hamilton musical!
Our Endocrine Surgery Fellow Dr. Jessica McMullin recently participated in a fellow exchange in New York City. She spent time visiting Columbia working with Drs. Jennifer Kuo and James Lee, as well as visiting NYU working with Drs. Kepal Patel and Insoo Suh.
While in the big apple, Dr. Herb Chen and his family also joined for some delicious meals between UAB and the Columbia and NYU groups. Thanks to Columbia and NYU for hosting our fellow and we look forward to welcoming Dr. Lina Hu in April to visit us at UAB!
We were thrilled to welcome Dr. Feibi Zheng from Baylor as our AAES Visiting Professor on Nov 15 2022. She gave a fantastic grand rounds presentation on “Quantifying Value in Surgery” and we appreciated getting one on one time with her and the residents/fellows/faculty to chat all things endocrine surgery and cost effectiveness in surgery. We also enjoyed a delicious dinner with her at Helen!
The UAB Endocrine Surgery group participated once again in the American Association for Endocrine Surgeons Foundation Auction. Our own Dr. Herb Chen served alongside Dr. Rajshri Gartland from MGH as organizers auctioning off the ever popular Scotch tasting with Dr. Quan Duh of UCSF, a local brewery tour with AAES President Cord Sturgeon from Northwestern, as well as other awesome experiences like Rhino painting, Botanical Gardens tours, and Afternoon Tea raising over $17,000!
Dr Rongzhi Wang and Dr Jessica McMullin recieved the IAES 2022 Travel Scholar Award
Dr Andrea Gillis won the best Poster Presentation by a Trainee at IAES 2022
The Endocrine Surgery Research group had a great time in Vienna Austria for the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons annual meeting! We toured the Schonbrunn palace, rode bikes, and ate our way through the town on a local food tour.
The department of endocrine surgery is excited to introduce Jessica Liu McMullin as the AAES Endocrine Surgery Fellow for the 2022 – 2023 academic year. Dr. McMullin is joining us from Emory University in Atlanta, GA where she completed her residency training in general surgery. We are thrilled to have such a talented and productive researcher and clinician join our group and we look forward to seeing all that you accomplish this year, Dr. McMullin. Welcome to UAB!
Dr. Andrea Gillis, our current AAES endocrine surgery fellow has been awarded the prestigious National Cancer Institute Early-stage Surgeon Scientist Program Grant for her study “Molecular Influences of Racial Disparities in Neuroendocrine Tumors.” She will spend the three years exploring the genomic influences on Neuroendocrine biology. Dr. Gillis has also recently been elected to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and will use her DEI expertise to inform her basic science work. We are so proud of our fellow and can’t wait to see the trajectory of her incredible career!
This year’s Academic Surgical Conference was full of proud moments for us at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Our residents submitted the highest number of total abstracts, won the resident jeopardy and robotics competitions, and our own Marvi Tariq took home the AAS Outstanding Research Resident award! Among our proudest moments, however, was when our own Brenessa Lindeman was elected to serve in the prestigious national leadership role of Secretary for the Association for Academic Surgery. Dr. Brenessa Lindeman is an exceptional role model for our trainees and a leader in research and education in Endocrine Surgery. We are so proud and honored to have her on faculty!
